We are students in Northwestern's Medill IMC [Integrated Marketing Communications] program in a Direct and Integrated Marketing course that teaches social marketing. As a part of our assignments, we need to better establish our professional personas and begin writing blogs on key topics which concern our future professional industries. You can also follow us on twitter using the hash tag #NUSocialIMC. Enjoy!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Is your brand part of the conversations or completely lost?

Simple steps to win positive buzz.

“Everyone is
on Facebook, we need a fan page”. Unfortunately, many marketers still think
like this. Following trends without analyzing its assumptions and nuances can
be the worst enemy of any marketing plan. In most cases, Facebook is not even
the most appropriate platform to spark conversations. Marketers’ ultimate goal
is to reach their customers and communicate with them. For that reason, it is
time for those that are still thinking about fan pages to realize that the era
of one-sided communication has ended.

People don’t
talk to corporations; they just talk to other people. So, the most effective
brand messages are those that are able to permeate into human territory and get
into those conversations. People talking about a brand is a beloved marketing
treasure, but not a result of chance and luck as many managers claim. There are
some patterns behind those brands that reign the positive buzz in the social
space.

They understand that
people love to share great or terrible experiences.

Individuals are
inherently inclined to share content, but that’s another topic for discussion.
What matters here is that they will not look for a brand’s fan page and share
it. They will just pass along content that is interesting, useful or
entertaining. A common mistake is to think that because it’s interesting to the
marketer, it will be so for everyone else. Thinking about the customers and why
they connect is the first step. Most of the brands that have more soundbites
online are related to great or terrible experiences. Maintaining an expected product
and/or service will not be a matter of conversations, so the key is to do
exceptionally well in some areas, while being careful of not doing bad in
absolutely anything.

They have brand
fanatics and some enemies.

Brands that
try to delight everyone, delight no one. Not everyone loves Apple, Starbucks,
Benetton, among others, but still they are desirable brands. In order to
deliver exceptional experiences and create brand fanatics, it’s important to
make a trade-off. Unique points of view can sometimes transcend the barriers of
a few conversations and energize social movements.

They know when to
respond to negative comments.

When a person
critiques the brand’s point of view or philosophy, it doesn’t deserve much
attention. When Dove developed its “Real Beauty” campaign, people started to
talk about the brand from a positive and negative side. Many videos against it
went viral, but that just energized more those who did connect with the brand. However,
when a customer exposes a bad experience about a product or service and has
some argument, it is important to react immediately. If a customer has a
complaint, it’s essential to solve it before it degenerates in a hay ball of
bad advertising.

It doesn’t
seem like chance anymore. Doesn’t it? Conversations can be joined at any time.
Just trying the following steps will get people talking about your brand.

1.Understand what your
customers are talking about. Start by figuring out what they are saying about your
brand, if they are saying something at all. But don’t skip this step because
many surprises can arise from this exercise. You can use any online listening
tool, such as NetBase, Radian6, among others. Don’t just stick to the summary
charts of sentiments, but dig into the soundbites. Don’t limit yourself to your
brand and main competitors, but think out of the box of topics and other brands
that could also be connecting with your target.

2.Change or start the
conversations. With a rigorous understanding of your customers’ conversations, you can
now start an action plan. Take what your customers say and don’t say to look
inside your company first. Solve areas and/or procedures that can be creating
trouble. Then, create those experiences that will surprise your customers. Think
about something that will solve a current problem they have and you will give
them a great reason to share their experience.

3.Just keep doing it,
forever. The success of brands that have exceptionally growing positive
soundbites never stop being actively engaged with its customers. Especially
customers that are effervescent evangelists of a brand are more vigilant to any
mistake. Remember it’s their word behind every recommendation they make, so no
one will still carry a positive message when errors take place.

Finally, make
sure you always stay true to your brand essence and your arena of knowledge.
People don’t believe in soda brands that suddenly care about health, or in
financial institutions that don’t care about money. Those types of
incongruences can also take away the positive buzz from your brand and turn it
into negative. Even if you have a great initiative, don’t implement it if it’s not
true to who you are as a brand.